Although Apple's iBooks Author 2 is free, that doesn't mean it's also easy. In Take Control of iBooks Author, you'll join ebook designer and instructional software developer Michael E. Cohen as he helps you create a Multi-Touch ebook in iBooks Author 2.

You'll find friendly guidance with planning a project so that your workflow and outline fit what iBooks Author 2 can do. You'll also get comprehensive step-by-step instructions for how to produce your ebook by customizing layouts and arranging text and media. Finally, you'll learn how to publish your ebook, whether for distribution on Apple's iBookstore or elsewhere.

Apple's Multi-Touch ebooks boast visually impressive, template-driven layouts that can contain many types of media--including interactive images, slideshows, audio and video files, rotating 3D images, scrolling sidebars, popping popovers, and quiz questions. You create them on your Mac in the free iBooks Author 2 from Apple, and you can sell them to iPad users in the iBookstore or distribute them for free in any way you like. (iBooks Author 2 runs on Mac OS X 10.7.4 Lion and later.)

Read this ebook for expert advice on how to:

Plan Your Project!

Give your content a "spine," and design it to flow comfortably into an iBooks Author template.

Decide whether to write your text in iBooks Author or in another program--and, if you decide to write outside of iBooks Author, learn how to import your content efficiently.

Produce Your Book!

Pick an iBooks Author template and customize it--whether it's one of the six new Portrait Only templates or a Landscape with Portrait template, you'll get detailed advice for customizing it so your book looks right no matter which way you turn it.

Add new chapters, sections, and pages to your book.

Make your text flow through your book, and understand how to control the flow.

Import and position graphics, videos, and other media items, so that they appear where you want them to--and understand why and how these elements may appear as thumbnails.

Make an imported graphic interactive with tappable elements that reveal additional information.

Create and configure study questions (and answers).

Add an interactive glossary and index, and understand how they interact.

Learn how iBooks Author generates a table of contents, and tweak your table of contents.

Make internal hyperlinks and external links to the Web.

Publish!

Export your ebook as a basic PDF or text file (for people who want to read your book, but don't have an iPad).

Export your ebook as a Multi-Touch ebook that can be read exclusively in iBooks on the iPad.